A
NEW WORLD ORDER: THE 1820s “BOOM”
The investment “boom” of the early 1820s saw large-scale capital
outlay in Latin American government bonds, and in joint stock companies.
Of the 127 new companies added to the London Stock Exchange, 44 were
mining companies; a significant fact, as practically none had existed
before.Moreover, over 50
per cent of these new companies were formed to work mines in Latin
America (see table below). This period can be said to mark the real
commencement of British investments in independent and semi-independent
foreign nations.

Name
of Company

Country
of operation

Capital

£
Authorised

£
Paid Up

Anglo-Chilean

Chile

1,500,000

120,000

Anglo-Mexican

Mexico

1,000,000

750,000

Anglo-Columbian

Colombia

1,500,000

75,000

Anglo-Peruvian

Peru

600,000

30,000

Bolaños

Mexico

200,000

87,500

Bolívar

Venezuela

500,000

50,000

Brazilian

Brazil

2,000,000

20,000

Castello

Brazil

1,000,000

50,000

Chilian

Chile

1,000,000

75,000

Chilan
and Peruvian

Chile
& Peru

1,000,000

50,000

Colombian

Colombia

1,000,000

150,000

Famatina

Argentina

250,000

50,000

Guanajuato

Mexico

400,000

6,000

General
South American

Primarily
Brazil

2,000,000

100,000

Haytian

Haiti,
Dominican Republic

1,000,000

50,000

Imperial
Brazilian

Brazil

1,000,000

200,000

Mexican

Mexico

1,000,000

150,000

Pasco-Peruvian

Peru

1,000,000

150,000

Potosí-La
Paz & Peruvian

Peru
& Bolivia

1,000,000

50,000

Real
del Monte

Mexico

400,000

325,000

Río
de la Plata

Argentina

1,000,000

75,000

Tlalpuxahua

Mexico

400,000

120,000

Tarma

Peru

200,000

5,000

United
Chilian

Chile

500,000

50,000

United
Mexican

Mexico

1,240,000

775,000

United
Provinces

Central
America

1,500,000

15,000

TOTAL

24,190,000

3,508,500

British
Mining Companies formed to operate in Latin America in the years
1824-25.

In
Latin America, governments acted quickly to create the prerequisite
conditions for foreign intervention in the mining industry. Newly
independent Mexico in 1823 rescinded those articles that had barred
foreigners from the mining industry of colonial Mexico, believing the
mines to be the touchstone of the country’s prosperity and the basis
on which foreign trade rested. The Brazilian Government too, relaxed
restrictions imposed on foreigners by its ancient laws.

Highly
inflated prospectuses were issued by companies set up to work mines
across Latin America, containing claims based more on the myths of their
colonial past, than on fact or scientific grounds. Many prospectuses
drew on the reports of German, Baron von Humboldt (who had travelled
extensively in South and Central America and was considered something of
an expert), and contained two basic points. Firstly, that the mines
worked in colonial Latin America had been profitable, but had been
hampered by a lack of modern technology and a dearth of geological
knowledge. Secondly, and more importantly, it was believed that the
introduction of British capital, technology and skilled labour would be
able to surmount any difficulties in developing a modern metalliferous
mining industry in Latin America.

Almost
a third of the mining companies set up in the 1820s had Cornish
Directors, many of whom invested considerable capital into the
enterprises. Although miners from other parts of Britain such as Wales,
Cumberland, Derbyshire and Scotland were recruited, as well as men from
America, France, Hungary and Germany, miners from Cornwall far
outnumbered them. This was due mainly to the fact that the Cornish
Directors appointed mine managers from Cornwall, who in turn recruited
men known to them in Cornish mines.

The
head offices and annual general meetings might have been held in London,
but at their inception most of the logistical arrangements were
conducted in Cornwall as well as the manufacture of machinery and
equipment.Here the great
foundries such as Sandy’s, Carne and Vivian, and Harvey’s, both of
Hayle, Holman’s of Camborne, and the Perran Company Foundry of
Fox-Williams built the Cornish steam engines, boilers, pumps and stamps
(ore crushing machinery) for Latin American mines, spawning a world
class export market in mining machinery which lasted into the twentieth
century. Smaller manufactories made everything from safety fuse and
miners’ boots and clothing, theodolites and ropes, to dags (picks),
shovels, bucking irons (flat faced hammers for grinding ore),
copper riddles (sieves) and kibbles (iron buckets).

The
export of men and machinery was facilitated because of Cornwall’s fine
network of ports.Primarily
a maritime area, Cornwall had a long and historic association with the
ocean that surrounded her and in Falmouth she could boast the third
largest, deepest natural harbour in the world. One of Britain’s
premier naval ports with ships calling there ‘for orders’ Falmouth
was also home to the Packet ships, by virtue of being granted official
Packet Status in 1688. At first operating ships to the Iberian
Peninsula, Falmouth’s Packet fleet soon commanded routes to the West
Indies and North and South America, forming dense transatlantic trade
and communication networks.

Although
some men and machinery were dispatched from Swansea, Portsmouth,
Plymouth and Liverpool, by far the most was exported through the port of
Falmouth. In 1825 it assumed an even greater profile, the Royal
Cornwall Gazette describing its streets as ‘thronged with
people…the hotels and principal houses consequently filled… as the
agents and others engaged for the different mining speculations abroad
are assembled and waiting to sail for their various destinations.’
This early nineteenth century migration of British capital, technology
and labour to Latin America marked the beginnings of the international
mining economy and its attendant labour market, in which the Cornish
were to play a central role for over a century.